Aspects of the disclosure relate to identifying colors of object components as depicted within images captured in various lighting environments.
Various light sources may provide light having different color characteristics. For example, a fluorescent lamp may produce light with a blue cast (e.g., a color temperature of 4500 Kelvin) and an incandescent lamp may produce light with a red cast (e.g., a color temperature of 2,500 Kelvin). When an image is captured of an object lit by a fluorescent light source, the object in the image may appear to have more of a blue cast compared with an image of the object lit by an incandescent light. For example, a white component of the object may have an RGB value of (252,232,220) in an image captured of the object lit by a source having a red cast, and the same white component may have an RGB value of (229, 255, 255) when the object is imaged under a light that produces a blue cast. Similarly, an object imaged outdoors may have different color characteristics depending on whether the object is imaged under a clear sky, a cloudy sky, or when illuminated by a setting or rising sun.
For many applications, it may be desirable to determine information about colors of objects depicted in images captured in an undefined lighting environment. For example, lighting environment information may not be available when an image is received from a user. Because the colors of an object in an image may vary depending on the lighting source or lighting sources illuminating the object, the colors of the object in the image may not be identifiable from the RGB value of pixels in the depiction of the object alone.